Genealogy, local history and historical research in New England and other interesting places. Nutfield was the former land grant ................................. that is now the towns of Londonderry, Derry and Windham, New Hampshire.

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Monday, February 10, 2014

A New Hampshire Man Imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1683, Facing Execution for Treason!

The GOVE memorial
at Hampton, New Hampshire's Founder's Park

Almost a century before the American colonies rose up in
resistance against Mother England during the Revolutionary War, a New Hampshire
man rose up against the crown. Edward
Gove (about 1635 – 1691) was a large land holder in Hampton, New Hampshire. He
was made a member of the assembly in 1680, and became the leader of a group
opposed to the Royal Governor Edward Cranfield.

Edward Cranfield had been appointed Governor in 1682 by the
king, and came to New Hampshire with the plan of transforming the colony into
plantations for the gentry. He attempted to nullify many land deeds existing in
New Hampshire for his plan. He also
dissolved the Council, which was a very unpopular move. Edward Gove and a group of other men opposed the
new Governor.

Gove and eleven others (Jonathan Thing, Nathaniel Ladd,
Joseph Hadley, Robert Wadley, Thomas Rawlins/Rollins, Mark Baker, John Sleeper,
John Gove (Edward’s son), and others) were
arrested and brought before the court in Portsmouth on 1 February 1682/3. The entire group was found guilty of treason,
but only Edward Gove was sentenced to death by Judge Richard Waldron. This was the charge:

“You, Edward Gove
shall be drawn on a hedge to the place of execution, and there you shall be
hanged by ye neck, and when yet living be cut down and cast on the ground, and
your bowels shall be taken out of your belly, and your privy members cut off
and burnt while you are yet alive, your head shall be cut off and your body
divided into four parts, and your head and quarters shall be placed where our
Sovereign Lord the King pleaseth to appoint.
And the Lord have mercy on your soul”

His desperate wife presented this petition:

“The wretchd & Deplorable
Condition of her selfe and family, but chiefely her husband, who by means of a
distemper of Lunacy or some such like, which he have benn Subject unto (by
times) from his youth, and yet is untill now (as his mother was before him) (though
at some times seemingly very Rationall) which have occationed him Irationally
and evily to demeane himselfe (by means of some unhappy provocation) to such
actions whereby he have incured unto himselfe the Sentence of Death; past upon
him by yor Maties Court in the same Province, with Loss of all his Estate; and
is now sent over into England to attend yor Maties further pleasure therein, on
whose Royall favour only now depends all possibility of Releise. And for as
much as he never had the least expression of disloyalty or Disafection to yor
Maties person, Crown & Dignety or Interest neither then, nor at any other
time that wee know of nor nothing tending that way (when Rationall) but the
Contrary, as he would have pleaded at his tryall had be been himselfe and doubt
not but he would upon tht accompt now begg for his own life either to the
Honorable Govt here or of yor Royall Majties there, but he being not capable of
so doeing.
Your most deploreable Supplicant Doe in most Humble wise Pray your Sacred Majties
favourable admitance of her humble Request for the life of her said Husband (by
your Majties Gratious pardon) or what way soever it shall seem good to yor
Majties, yor poore petitioner haveing no knowlidge of Law, of the privilidges
that a Subject may plead, and yor Majties poore Petitioner, and all her
Distressed family, Shall as in duty they are bound ever pray for yor Majties
long life andHappy
Reigne.
HANNAH GOVE”

No New Hampshire authorities wanted to carry out the
sentence, and Mrs. Gove’s petition was ignored (yet survived for us to find in
the records!). On 2 April 1683 he was
put on the ship Richard to England
and sent to prison in the Tower of London, where it was assumed his sentence
would be carried out by the royal executioners.
During his time in prison, King Charles II died and King James II ascended the throne. Gove successfully petitioned the new king to
pardon him on 26 August 1685, but he was not released. On 12 April 1686 the king sent a letter to
the President and Council of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, stating that Gove
had been pardoned.

In the meantime, the unpopular Royal Governor Cranfield tried
to continue his plans in New Hampshire. The
sentence Gove had received did not push the people into submission, but made
them more rebellious. The new King
removed Cranfield, and he was escorted to the Massachusetts border with a rope
around his neck. England sent him to
Barbados to serve as a customs official.

Gove returned to Hampton, New Hampshire, where he died in
1691. Most of his land was returned to
him, which he left to his sons in his will.

Edward Gove is buried at the Pine Grove Cemetery in
Hampton. He holds the distinction of
being the only New England colonist convicted of treason and sentenced to be
drawn and quartered. This incident is
known in New Hampshire history as “Gove’s Rebellion”.

For more information about Royal Governor Edward Cranfield,
see The
History of New Hampshire by Jeremy Belkap, 1813, Volume II, page 369
(available online at Google Books)

The magistrate Richard Waldron was a notoriously cruel man
in New Hampshire history. Click this
link to see a blog post about another sentence he issued against the Quakers,
and how he died at the hands of the Native people he had abused during his
time in office:

Generation 1: Edward
Gove, born about 1635 in England, died 29 May 1691 in Hampton; married about
1660 to Hannah Partridge, daughter of William Partridge and Ann Spicer. She was born about 1638.

Generation 2: Ebenezer Gove, born 23 June 1671 in Hampton,
died 16 April 1758 in Hampton; married on 20 December 1692 in Hampton to Judith
Sanborn, daughter of John Sanborn and Judith Coffin. She was born 8 August 1675 and died about
1760.

Generation 3: Edward Gove, born 29 May 1696 in Hampton
Falls, died 10 July 1765 in Hampton; married on 18 June 1728 to Mary Moulton,
daughter of Daniel Moulton and Mary Unknown.
She was born 16 December 1706 and died 20 October 1793 in Hampton Falls.

Generation 4: Winthrop Gove, born 3 November 1732 in Hampton,
died 3 June 1808 in Hampton; married 3 June 1754 to Elizabeth Ring, daughter of
Jonathan Ring and Esther Batchelder.

Generation 5: Levi Gove, born 29 June 1759 in Hampton Falls,
New Hampshire, died in Seabrook, New Hampshire; married Mary Chase, daughter of
Charles Chase and Mary Griffith. She was
born 19 April 1760 in Hampton, died 19 September 1852 in Seabrook.

Generation 6: William
Gove, born 15 February 1794 in Seabrook, New Hampshire, died 1834 in Seabrook;
married in 1815 to Elizabeth Chase, daughter of Aquila Chase and Anna
Moulton. She was born 28 November 1796
in Seabrook, and died 1882 in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Generation 7: Worthen Augustus Gove, born 12 July 1819 in
Seabrook, died 28 March 1885 in Nahant, Massachusetts; married on 15 January
1836 in Lynn to Emeline A. Spencer, daughter of William Spencer and Mary Gale
Homan. She was born 12 April 1819 in
Beverly, Massachusetts, died 9 February 1897 in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Generation 8: Charles Edward Gove, born 23 July 1839 in
Lynn, died 26 January 1920 in Nahant; married Elvira E. Whitney, daughter of
Charles Whitney and Adeline Strong. She
was born 26 November 1833 in Dublin, New Hampshire and died 15 April 1901 in
Nahant.

Generation 9: George Alvah Gove, born 17 September 1870 in
Nahant, died 1945 in Beverly, Massachusetts; married on 16 April 1894 to
Frances L. Harris, sister to the wife of George’s brother Charles. She was born 12 April 1873 in New London,
Connecticut, died 1962 in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Generation 10: Grace Mildred Gove, born 18 October 1897 in
Nahant, died 18 March 1834 in Beverly; married Erwin McKenney as his first
wife.

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Author of the Nutfield Genealogy blog and occasional genealogy speaker. My family research includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, with a smattering of Nova Scotia. Please contact me if you see your ancestors on this blog. I would love to share information. I am the former secretary of the New Hampshire Mayflower Society, former President of the Londonderry Historical Society, member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Mass. Society of Genealogists, The National Genealogical Society, and the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists.